eat /ēt/ v. 1. to take in through the mouth as food: ingest, chew, and swallow in turn

"Alright, listen up!" (F/N) shouted to Sasha and Connie as they sped through the air. "If you're about to get eaten, make sure to tuck your arms and legs."

"What?" Connie yelled. "The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said!" (F/N) shouted. "Keeps your arms and legs close and curl up into a fetal position!"

"You should be plenty familiar with that, Connie!" Sasha laughed.

"Okay, big guy's first. I'll act as bait. Connie, you take out its Achilles and Sasha..."

"Way ahead of you!"

"Alright... now!"

Releasing more gas from the tank, (F/N) broke away from the other two and flew straight for the nineteen meter. Staring at him with platter sized eyes, it reached out for him with a hand the size of a fishing boat. Swinging his momentum forward, (F/N) twisted his body and squeezed through the gap between its fingers then zipped off to the side as the Titan's left ankle gave and its weight buckled.

"Good work." (F/N) called out as Sasha delivered the killing blow. Wasting no time, Connie and Sasha immediately retook their positions behind (F/N), speeding through the streets in a spearhead formation. "They're next." (F/N) pointed his blade at two Titans lumbering in a plaza square. "Line 'em up for me."

The two nodded and continued straight for the Titans as (F/N) took a sharp turn down an alley.

"Hey!" Connie shouted as he and Sasha tethered to the side of a building. "Come and get us you ugly bastards!"

The two giants stopped in their tracks and slowly turned towards the source of the noise, turning their gazes upon the recruits.

"Uh, I think you got their attention." Sasha said shakily.

There was something about the Titans' eyes that paralyzed them. They were empty. Expressionless. But somehow, they stared holes into their very beings. Even as they drew nearer, even as their hands reached out to pluck them from the wall, neither Sasha nor Connie could move. Something in the Titan's eyes had taken all the fight from them as their primal instincts recognized what they were looking at. Death.

They hadn't bought (F/N) enough time to outflank them. This was it. Connie looked away and Sasha cried silently as the Titans' wide jaws descended upon them. They weren't even going to have the honor of being crushed to death before being devoured whole. They were being served straight from the platter to their mouths. The blackness of the inside of their mouths was almost upon the recruits. They wet themselves.

"Hey, good job you two. I'm impressed you didn't flinch." Connie and Sasha opened their eyes to see the two Titans disintegrating into billowing clouds of steam. Looking up they saw (F/N) affixed to the wall just above them. "Good thing too. If ya hadn't been so still they probably wouldn't've been lined up as perfectly as they were."

Connie nodded shakily. "Y-Yeah." He stammered. "No problem."

Tapping the side of his gas tanks, (F/N) switched out his blades for a fresh pair. "Don't get too cocky though." He warned. "There's still six left, and I saw a nasty lookin' abnormal jumpin' across the rooftops. Damn thing must do some serious squats. Okay, ready to keep movin'?" He looked out at the city and scanned the area for the Titans, making sure to keep mental notes on their positions so none could sneak up on them. "Hey," he said when he noticed he hadn't gotten a response, "you two alright?"

"Uh-huh." Sasha tried to nod.

"Hey, keep a cool head." (F/N) said. "Just stay close and follow my lead. We're gonna make it out of this, yeah?"

"Y-Yeah." Connie said doubtfully. "Right."

"Say it."

"We're gonna make it out of this." The other two repeated, this time with more confidence behind their words.

"Good. Now, we got a straggler just a few streets down. We'll take him out, then track down that abnormal before it gets any closer to Franz and Ha..."

His words were cut short by a high-pitched scream. Quickly scaling the wall, Sasha and Connie immediately sought out the church where they'd left the other members of their squad.

"We need to get back to Hanna and Franz!" Sasha said. (F/N) ignored her, his eyes rapidly jumping around the battlefield. "(F/N)!"

"The church is at our seven o'clock." He said, still scanning the city. "That scream came from our two." His pupils dilated as he located the person in need of help. "Dammit. That thing moves fast." He growled, eying the abnormal he'd spotted earlier.

"(F/N)!" Connie grabbed his friend by the shoulders. "What do we do?"

"Uh," (F/N) thought, his eyes still trained on the endangered individual, "right. You and Sasha get back to the church. Take Hanna and Franz and retreat a few streets back."

"What about you?"

(F/N) pointed his blade in the direction of the scream. "I'm bailin' them out."

"What?" Connie yelled. "You're crazy! They could be dead for all we know! And besides, there's still six Titans out there!"

Sasha shook her head. "No, no there's more than that."

"What?"

"Yeah, you're right." (F/N) narrowed his eyes, "That scream would've attracted more of 'em. Okay, listen." He said, turning to face the other two. "There's two Titans between here and the church. You should be able to beat 'em if you're fast. Me and Mi... whoever's over there will meet up with you guys in a few minutes."

"But..."

"Just shut up and go!" (F/N) shouted.

"Come on, Connie."

"Grr, you better still be alive when this is all over!" Connie yelled as he and Sasha ran off.

"Same goes to both of you!" (F/N) called out over his shoulder. "Alright." He breathed to himself, flexing his fingers around the handles of his gear. "Don't worry. I'm comin' for ya Mina."

Pulling the trigger on his ODM gear, he launched himself once more into the fray and began carving a path for the abnormal. He maintained a height of fifteen meters as he swung through the streets so he could quickly adjust to the varying heights of the Titans. His blades cut through the napes of five more of the initial nine as he sped towards the direction of the scream. Rounding the last corner, he saw a handful of cadets in panicked disarray just a few alleys down. The abnormal was wreaking havoc on the frightened recruits, accompanied by a bearded twelve meter and a short little six meter that hid behind a building, peering at them with hungry eyes.

As one of the cadets went swinging by, the peering Titan clamped its hand down on the cable of the ODM gear, sending the recruit reeling backwards until her back crashed painfully against a brick wall, sending her sliding to the ground where she slumped over. She was too dazed to fight back as the Titan reached for her, trapping her petite frame in its beefy hand. All she could do was whimper pathetically as the Titan opened its jaw, preparing to devour her. The top half of her body was inside its mouth, and she found herself staring down the dark tunnel that lead to its stomach. No light at the end, not this time. All that waited at the end of the tunnel was death.

"MIIIINAAAA!"

She felt a pair of strong hands grip her under the arms and the next thing she knew she was falling. The world seemed to slow to a snail's pace. In front of her was the Titan, the fullness of its body slowly coming back into view as she fell further away from it. And inside its mouth she saw her savior. She reached her hand out for him, but it was much too late. The Titan's mouth had already started to close. She screamed out his name, begging for him to take her hand. He could still reach, and then she could use the momentum of her fall to pull him free. It would work. It had to work. They still had time. But he didn't move. Actually, it seemed he was moving further away from her, further into the Titan's mouth. He had a confident smirk on his face and gave her a knowing wink. It was the last she saw of him before he was devoured.

What just happened? This wasn't real, it couldn't be. But as she watched the Titan swallow, the lump traveling down its throat and to its stomach, she knew that it was. It shouldn't have happened. He was strong. He was brave. He was everything she wasn't. Everything she aspired to be. It's what drew her to him in the first place. So why was she the one still breathing when it should have been her who had died?

Her shock turned to anguish which quickly gave way to anger. Anger at the Titan that had taken the man she was still in love with. Anger at him for doing something so stupid. And anger at herself for being too weak to do anything. Even now, so fueled by rage, the fear that gripped her heart was still stronger. As much as she wanted to avenge his death, she was too scared to try. And as the Titan reached for her once more, she knew that (F/N)'s sacrifice had meant nothing. She would die just as pathetically as she had lived.

[Attack on Titan]

The thing (F/N) never understood was why everyone was so afraid of being eaten. Every sniveling person he came across was always crying because they were scared of being eaten by the big bad Titans. But he knew being eaten was so bad. It was the fear that did them in. If they struggled the Titans simply crushed them before tossing them in their mouths. If they made it into the mouth alive, they tried to crawl back out which only resulted in getting turned to red paste between their massive teeth. That's why when shit hit the fan you shouldn't be running away from the Titan's mouth. You should be doing everything in your power to ensure you make it in the mouth in one piece. Tuck your damn legs and curl up into a ball. In this instance, the belly of the beast was the safest place to be.

He laughed as he rode down the beast's throat like a slide, landing with a splash in a pool of blood. The Titans' biology meant the stomach was sweltering, but on the plus side they didn't have digestive tracts, which meant no stomach acid to worry about. Honestly, if you could get past the smell, it was actually quite pleasant, almost like a hot spring. He would have stayed a while if not for what he knew was happening outside.

With a pull of a trigger, the hooks of his ODM gear fired back up the Titan's gullet and pierced into the roof of its mouth. (F/N) slowly ascended the throat, considering its length and the Titan's overall size as he did so. Looking up he saw the uvula about one of his heights away. He closed one eye and gave it some thought. A little higher. Taking one of his blades, he stuck it into the wall of the esophagus. He didn't have enough room for a full swing, so instead he began sawing across the tissue. The inside was much easier to cut through than the outside. The world started shaking as the Titan began to fall until (F/N) was oriented horizontally instead of vertically. Rolling onto his stomach, (F/N) whistled as he slowly army crawled his way to the mouth.

The blood soaking his uniform began evaporating as soon as it was exposed to fresh air. It was like his clothes were being steamed with him inside them. Too bad the saliva didn't go too. Of all the parts of a Titan that didn't disappear after they died, it just had to be the spit. Getting to his feet, he began shaking the sliminess from his hair and arms. He'd definitely need a bath when this was all over. Brushing off his legs, he was almost knocked over by a small body throwing itself at him.

"Uh, hey Mina." He chuckled, patting the girl on the head.

Her arms were wrapped tightly around his middle, and she buried the side of her face in his chest. "(F/N). I thought you were dead." She cried. "You asshole, I thought you were dead." Her demeanor changed and she stepped out of the hug, punching him hard in the stomach. "What the hell were you thinking?" She asked angrily as he doubled over.

"Not the thanks I was hoping for." He wheezed.

"Why'd you go risking your life for me?" She asked heatedly. "I'm not worth that."

"Yeah, not the brightest thing I've ever done." He said meekly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Though, it's not the craziest either."

Standing on her tiptoes, Mina placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. "Thank you. I would be dead if it weren't for you."

"Well," he smiled, his cheeks a feint shade of red, "I couldn't let that happen, now, could I?"